"It's So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday"~Boyz II Men

It's the end of the year and there are many memories you have had over the course of the past ten months.  Read the lyrics (words to the song) by the popular '90s R&B boy band Boyz II Men.   Describe two things that make this a poem.  Next write what you will miss, enjoyed, or learned as a fifth grader this year.

Follow this link to see a performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w6m-nhUcos

                                         How do I say goodbye to what we had? 

The good times that made us laugh 
Outweigh the bad.  (verse 1)

I thought we'd get to see forever 
But forever's gone away 
It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday. (Verse 2)

I don't know where this road 
Is going to lead 
All I know is where we've been 
And what we've been through. (Verse 3)

If we get to see tomorrow 
I hope it's worth all the wait 
It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday. (verse 4)

And I'll take with me the memories 
To be my sunshine after the rain 
It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday. (refrain)

And I'll take with me the memories 
To be my sunshine after the rain 
It's so hard to say goodbye to yesterday. (refrain)

source: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/boyziimen/itssohardtosaygoodbyetoyesterday.html

Liberty!

Visit the link, American Revolution, and write three comparisons and three contrasting things about British and Rebel soldiers.  Do you think they have more things in common or less things in common than you thought before?  Explain.






Source: http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/perspectives_military.html

Select one of the stories below.  In two to three sentences, explain what the theme of the story is and why you think so.

The Fox and the Grapes

Aesop

Once upon a time there was a fox strolling through the woods.
He came upon a grape orchard.  There he found a bunch of
beautiful grapes hanging from a high branch.

"Boy those sure would be tasty," he thought to himself.
He backed up and took a running start, and jumped.
He did not get high enough.

He went back to his starting spot and tried again.
He almost got high enough this time, but not quite.

He tried and tried, again and again, but just couldn't get high
enough to grab the grapes.

Finally, he gave up.

As he walked away, he put his nose in the air and said:
"I am sure those grapes are sour."

The Bear and the Two Travelers

Two men were traveling together, when a Bear suddenly met them on their  path.

One of them climbed up quickly into a tree and hid in the branches. The  other, feeling that he would be attacked, fell flat on the ground.

The Bear came up and felt him with his snout, and smelt him all over. He  held his breath, and pretended to be dead.

The Bear soon left him, for it is said bears will not touch a dead body.

When the bear was quite gone, the other Traveler came down out of the  tree.  With a clever grin, he inquired of his friend, "Just what was it that the Bear whispered in your ear?"

His companion replied, "He gave me this advice:  Never travel  with a friend who deserts you at the approach of danger."

The Scorpion and the Frog 

One day, a scorpion looked around at the mountain where he lived and decided that he wanted a change. So he set out on a journey through the forests and hills. He climbed over rocks and under vines and kept going until he reached a river.  The river was wide and swift, and the scorpion stopped to reconsider the situation. He couldn't see any way across. So he ran upriver and then checked downriver, all the while thinking that he might have to turn back.  Suddenly, he saw a frog sitting in the rushes by the bank of the stream on the other side of the river. He decided to ask the frog for help getting across the stream. "Hellooo Mr. Frog!" called the scorpion across the water, "Would you be so kind as to give me a ride on your back across the river?"

"Well now, Mr. Scorpion! How do I know that if I try to help you, you wont try to kill me?" asked the frog hesitantly.

"Because," the scorpion replied, "If I try to kill you, then I would die too, for you see I cannot swim!"

Now this seemed to make sense to the frog. But he asked. "What about when I get close to the bank? You could still try to kill me and get back to the shore!"

"This is true," agreed the scorpion, "But then I wouldn't be able to get to the other side of the river!"

"Alright then...how do I know you wont just wait till we get to the other side and THEN kill me?" said the frog.

"Ahh...," crooned the scorpion, "Because you see, once you've taken me to the other side of this river, I will be so grateful for your help, that it would hardly be fair to reward you with death, now would it?!"

So the frog agreed to take the scorpion across the river. He swam over to the bank and settled himself near the mud to pick up his passenger. The scorpion crawled onto the frog's back, his sharp claws prickling into the frog's soft hide, and the frog slid into the river. The muddy water swirled around them, but the frog stayed near the surface so the scorpion would not drown. He kicked strongly through the first half of the stream, his flippers paddling wildly against the current.  Halfway across the river, the frog suddenly felt a sharp sting in his back and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the scorpion remove his stinger from the frog's back. A deadening numbness began to creep into his limbs.

"You fool!" croaked the frog, "Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?"

The scorpion shrugged, and did a little jig on the drownings frog's back.

"I could not help myself. It is my nature."

Then they both sank into the muddy waters of the swiftly flowing river.

sources: http://allaboutfrogs.org/stories/scorpion.html, http://www.bedtime.com/html/fables_.html

Ring Ring Ring

Follow this link Cell Pones in School to read the debate about whether cell phones should be allowed in school.  What side of the argument do you think is more convincing?  Cite one reason from the debate and why it was persuasive.

Yummy Yummy

Read the article below.  There are three tips below on how to eat healthy and make your meals taste great.  Select one of the tips and explain how this is or is not a helpful tip for a chef.  Next provide the recipe of an item you would cook if you were in the competition.  Include the items you would need and a brief list of steps for making the item.

D.C. chef has tips on creating a healthful recipe

When you think about food, what do you think about? The peanut butter and jelly sandwich in your lunchbox? The broccoli that your parents make you eat at dinner? The potato chips that you crave after a long day at school?

But what about thinking about food as a way to express yourself, a way to experiment with flavors and a way to explore your own palate? (That’s your taste buds.)

(Alex Wong/Getty Images) - Winners of the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge earn an opportunity to be part of a kids’ “State Dinner” at the White House with first lady Michelle Obama.

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“Inspiration is where everything comes from,” says Jeremy Cooke, the chef at the Argonaut restaurant in Washington, where the kids menu is divided into three categories: milder flavors, medium flavors and stronger flavors. Cooke (what a perfect name for him!) has been cooking since he was 5 years old, experimenting and making mistakes in the kitchen.

For the second year in a row, first lady Michelle Obama and food Web site Epicurious.com are challenging kids ages 8 to 12 to create their own healthful recipes for lunch. Judges will choose one winner from every state, the U.S. territories, Puerto Rico and Washington. Those winners will be invited to a kids state dinner at the White House to eat some of the winning dishes with the first lady. (State dinners are fancy dinners.) Last year, more than 1,200 kids entered the contest. And just like last year, the judges will be looking for good, original (that means created by you) recipes. KidsPost asked Cooke for advice on how to come up with one.

Start with a key ingredient

“Start out with the things you like,” Cooke says about creating a recipe. “If you like strawberries, start with strawberries. If you like salad, start with salad.” Or, another way to find inspiration: Just look around the kitchen. “You can always open the refrigerator and find something to make,” Cooke says.

A very important part of the contest is making sure the recipes are healthful, so limiting such things as butter, oil and cream is important. Cooke suggests using items that are fresh, not frozen or out of a can.

“With a can, you never know how much . . .preservatives [things that are added so that the food will last longer] it’s been sitting in,” Cooke says.

Also, limit the salt in your recipe. “You can always add oil, salt and seasoning later if you need to,” he says.

Although portion size is not mentioned in the contest rules, Cooke says that’s important when creating a healthful recipe. Portion size is how much of a dish one person should be encouraged to eat. A lot of scientists worry that many people are eating too much because servings have become too large. Think about how much you’re making. One serving of something — say, fruit or pasta — should fit in the palm of your hand.

Spices are a great way to add flavor without adding fat. Cooke advises you to notice the spices your parents use and then taste a variety of spices. Figure out which ones you like. Cooke recommends that at first you try simple spices, such as crushed red pepper and cumin, his favorite. “As a kid, I hated garlic,” Cooke says. “My grandmother had to make garlic bread without the garlic.”

Find inspiration

Cooke’s grandmother first inspired him to cook. “She was the first cook I knew,” he says. “I used [cooking] as a way to spend time with [her.]” He fondly remembers his grandmother’s homemade Oreo cookie recipe, which he has been trying to make for years. His grandmother was secretive about the ingredients.

As an 8-year-old kid, Cooke remembers making beef goulash, a soup with vegetables and meat, and putting every spice in it that he could find. “It was the worst!” he says, but he learned from the experience. “Everybody makes mistakes cooking,” Cooke says, even famous chefs.

Be an artist

In a restaurant, the way the food looks once it is cooked and ready to be served is called presentation. If you are going to send a photograph of your dish to the judges, Cooke advises putting the food on a big white plate and making sure there’s nothing dripping around the edges. Use a clean cloth to wipe off the edges if you need to. But mostly, Cooke says, have fun. If you want to make a cool happy face on the plate — with peas as the eyes, couscous for the nose and a red sauce for the mouth — do it! Be adventurous and creative!

“It’s just food,” he says. “It’s not the end of the world. Don’t be afraid to get it wrong.”

— Moira E. McLaughlin

source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/dc-chef-gives-cooking-tips-to-kids/2013/04/25/2f895400-a848-11e2-b029-8fb7e977ef71_story.html

Earth Day 2013

Select one of the quotes below.  In three or more sentences explain why you selected the quote, what you think the author meant and how you plan on spending Earth Day.  Make sure you tell what number quote you are responding to.


1. I conceive that the land belongs to a vast family of which many are dead, few are living, and countless numbers are still unborn.  ~A Chieftan from Nigeria


2. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.  ~Native American Proverb


3. Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.  ~Henry David Thoreau


4. There's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to put it all.  ~Robert Orben


5. For 200 years we've been conquering Nature.  Now we're beating it to death.  ~Tom McMillan, quoted in Francesca Lyman, The Greenhouse Trap, 1990
6. I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.  ~Elwyn Brooks White, Essays of E.B. White, 1977
7. Take nothing but pictures.
Leave nothing but footprints.
Kill nothing but time.
~Motto of the Baltimore Grotto, a caving society


9. Humankind has not woven the web of life.  We are but one thread within it.  Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.  All things are bound together.  All things connect.  ~Chief Seattle, 1855

10. Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money.  ~Cree Indian Proverb

source: http://www.quotegarden.com/earth-day.html

Couch Potato

How TV Effects your Child

Most kids plug into the world of television long before they enter school. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF):

• two-thirds of infants and toddlers watch a screen an average of 2 hours a day
• kids under age 6 watch an average of about 2 hours of screen media a day, primarily TV and videos or DVDs
• kids and teens 8 to 18 years spend nearly 4 hours a day in front of a TV screen and almost 2 additional hours on the computer (outside of schoolwork) and playing video games

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that kids under 2 years old not watch any TV and that those older than 2 watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming.

The first 2 years of life are considered a critical time for brain development. TV and other electronic media can get in the way of exploring, playing, and interacting with parents and others, which encourages learning and healthy physical and social development.

As kids get older, too much screen time can interfere with activities such as being physically active, reading, doing homework, playing with friends, and spending time with family.

Of course, TV in moderation can be a good thing: Preschoolers can get help learning the alphabet on public television, grade schoolers can learn about wildlife on nature shows, and parents can keep up with current events on the evening news. No doubt about it — TV can be an excellent educator and entertainer.

So what do you think?  After you read the information above do you think tv is a good thing or a bad thing?  In three or more sentences explain your viewpoint and include at least one example of how tv can be good or bad.

source: http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html

I Give It Two Thumbs Up

Everyone is good about giving their opinions and that is what a book review is all about.  Read the book review of the popular children's book Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls:

Grade 5 Reviews   Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

Review by: Della J. Massachusetts, Grade 5 The author originally wrote this book on scraps of old paper. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls is one of the best books I’ve ever read. I was fascinated from the very beginning to the very end. Billy, a young boy in the Ozarks, saves up his money for two years, just to buy a pair of good hunting hounds. After training them, he realizes he got more than he could ever dream of. In fact, his pups were the best hunting dogs in the area. Billy proves that by winning a shiny gold cup at a ‘coon hunting contest. His dogs cared for each other, and did amazing things that no other hounds would ever do, and Billy rewarded them by going hunting every night, except when the weather was bad. One night, while Billy was out hunting, his dogs chased a mountain lion up a tree which ended being fatal to one of the dogs. Old Dan nearly died until he got home, where he did die. Little Ann, the other dog, got so upset about that that she starved herself and then died. I loved this book because I had never really known about people who lived in the mountains. I was intrigued by the dogs behavior, and Billy’s decisions as he faced obstacles that not many other ‘coon hunters did. This was truly a classic book.

Answer the following questions:  Does this make you want to read the book and why?  If not explain what could the reviewer done to make the book more interesting?  If so what made the book seem like it would be enjoyable?  Write your own book review of The Whipping Boy.  Include these three things if you would recommend it, your favorite part of the story, and your least favorite part.

source: http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/swyar/browseEntry.asp?id=63496&grade=5&booktitle=Where+the+Red+Fern+Grows

Is that a Metaphor or a Simile?

April is National Poetry Month.  Read one of the Shel Silverstein poems about Hippos.
Which of the poems do you like better?  Explain.  Identify three examples of figurative language.  What are they and why do you think the author uses them. 

                                             Recipe for a Hippopotamus Sandwich

A hippo sandwich is easy to make. All you do is simply take One slice of bread, One slice of cake, Some mayonnaise, One onion ring, One hippopotamus, One piece of string, A dash of pepper-- That ought to do it. And now comes the problem... Biting into it!

Hippo's Hope

There once was a hippo who wanted to fly --
Fly-hi-dee, try-hi-dee, my-hi-dee-ho.
So he sewed him some wings that could flap through the sky --
Sky-hi-dee, fly-hi-dee, why-hi-dee-go. He climbed to the top of a mountain of snow --
Snow-hi-dee, slow-hi-dee, oh-hi-dee-hoo.
With the clouds high above and the sea down below --
Where-hi-dee, there-hi-dee, scare-hi-dee-boo. (Happy ending)
And he flipped and he flapped and he bellowed so loud --
Now-hi-dee, loud-hi-dee, proud-hi-dee-poop.
And he sailed like an eagle, off into the clouds --
High-hi-dee, fly-hi-dee, bye-hi-dee-boop. (Unhappy ending)
And he leaped like a frog and he fell like a stone --
Stone-hi-dee, lone-hi-dee, own-hi-dee-flop.
And he crashed and he drowned and broke all his bones --
Bones-hi-dee, moans-hi-dee, groans-hi-dee-glop. (Chicken ending)
He looked up at the sky and looked down at the sea --
Sea-hi-dee, free-hi-dee, whee-hi-dee-way.
And he turned and went home and had cookies and tea --
That's hi-dee, all hi-dee, I have to say.

******************ExtraCredit***********************

Write your own hippo poem including three examples of figurative language
source: http://faculty.weber.edu/chansen/humanweb/projects/MeghanUng/hippopoems.htm

HERstory

This month is Woman's History month.  Many people call history her-story to recognize the accomplishments of women.Visit the link (Woman's HERstory Month click here) and select one of the herstorical events that you think was the most important.  In your write in three to four sentences why the event was important, one way history would be different without the event, and a woman who you think is making herstory today.

source: http://www.timeforkids.com/news/womens-history-milestones/9731

Fall Back...Spring Forwar

Daylight Saving Time

 sun dial used to determine sun time

Standard time is determined by checking clocks against a sundial. When the Sun is directly overhead and shadows are at their shortest, it is said to be noon. Many areas do not observe true Sun time due to political and social borders.

During the First World War, Germany instituted a daylight saving program to save power. They ordered everyone to set their clocks ahead by one hour, or one hour ahead of standard Sun time. Doing this made it so that it was light longer into the evening, saving their country energy in the form of electricity.

In 1918 the United States began a similar policy. Today, most countries around the world observe Daylight Saving Time. Daylight Saving Time usually begins in April and ends in October in the Northern Hemisphere, after which clocks are set back to standard Sun time.

Imagine you are a world government.  If you could control time how would you change it and why?  Write three to four sentences to explain your response. How does the caption help you understand the image?  Make sure you answer all three questions in your response.

 

**********************************Extra Credit***********************************

Research and find one of the regions of the world that does not observe day light savings time.  Where is it and why don't they practice the time change.

source: http://www.kidsgeo.com/geography-for-kids/0024-daylight-savings-time.php

Dear Mr. President,

  Have you ever wanted to share your advice with the president? Here is your chance. The Washington Post and Handwriting Without Tears teamed up to allow kids to give a piece of advice to newly re-inaugurated president Barak Obama. Read the three pieces of advice offered by kids below.  Select one and tell if this is good or bad advice and explain why.  Then in three to four sentences leave your own advice for the president.  Make sure it is clearly stated and explain what exactly you want the president to think, say, or do.

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Dear Mr. President,

You should try to help the schools earn more money. Also help the homeless people and you should help lost animals. If we do that, we will make the world a better place. Do you know that I am recycling bottles and paper? I pick up all of the trash in my yard and help lost animals find its owner. If you have time, can you write back?

Sincerely,

Stephanie Carpenter, fourth grade, Lynchburg

Dear President Obama,

I have some advice for you. Let’s start off with better school lunches. I eat three times a day and I don’t look forward to lunch, so I bring lunch. We should at least get real food! They should be healthier and something more than a microwaved box with food. You should also make longer school recesses so there is less childhood obesity. There are just two of my many ideas. I’ll keep sending so watch out for . . .

Your citizen,

Andrew Misura, 10, Potomac

Dear Mr. President,

My hopes and dreams for the next four years are for there to be an All Ice Cream Day where you only eat ice cream for the day. Because I really like ice cream, and a lot of other people like it a lot.

Sincerely, Alec Butler, fourth grade, Vienn

To find out more about this project visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/dear-mr-president-washington-area-kids-write-letters-and-offer-advice-to-barack-obama/2013/01/16/014edc4e-599d-11e2-88d0-c4cf65c3ad15_story.html

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I Swear...

The new President is inaugurated on January 20. A President who is re-elected must be sworn in again. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court reads the Oath of Office outside the Capitol Building. The President and Vice President swear to do their jobs to the best of their abilities and to be faithful to the Constitution. There is a huge parade up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House after the official ceremony. The new President rides in a limousine or walks along the parade route, smiling and waving to the crowd. Many fancy inaugural balls are held all over the city of Washington at night to celebrate the President’s election.

source: http://www.congressforkids.net/Elections_inauguration.htm

After reading the brief information above in three to four sentences explain why is it important to have an inauguration? 

A Unique Point of View

M.C.Escher is an artist known for his black and white sketches that use geometric figures and  mind boggling  concepts in his works.  Use one of the images below to write a poem.  Your poem should include either personification, alliteration, or hyperbole/ exaggeration and be clearly connected to the work you select and be between five to ten lines long.  Make sure you tell what image you are using for your poem. 

    
                        image 1                                                         image 2



                      image 3